The ultimate peanut butter cookie that melts in your mouth like tender-crisp shortbread, chocked full of peanut butter morsels and sprinkled lightly with kosher salt and sugar.
Mama is the biggest peanut butter cookie fan I've ever known. I'd be willing to wager money that she's tried more recipes than anyone else I know. Maybe on earth.
Through all her experimenting and recipe testing over the years, she's never found The One. You know? That one best recipe that hits all the notes. Maybe that's why she's always trying new recipes. She'd never found The One.
Until she did. Well, she found something pretty dang close. She stumbled upon a New York Times recipe (was not happy that she had to buy a subscription to view it online), made it and liked it a lot.
She liked it a lot - more than most others she had tried - but it wasn't quite perfect yet so she made a few more batches, tweaking as she went.
The original recipe uses unsweetened peanut butter, unsalted "cultured" butter (whatever that is) and has no leavening agents or vanilla.
She kept at it until she landed on this final recipe, added peanut butter morsels and WHAM-O finally made the perfect peanut butter cookie.
These cookies are very much like Pecan Sandies, in that they have a shortbread vibe. They sort of melt in your mouth in the best way. There is a tiny pinch of sugar and salt on top that makes them "sandy" too.
And those few crystals of sugar and salt on top really wake up your taste buds! The kosher salt signals your brain make your mouth water so that tender-crisp crumb will literally melt in your mouth.
Mama went all in and added peanut butter morsels and I am HERE FOR IT! The morsels add another element to the texture and the flavor and I think the cookies are all the better for them!
3 FAQ ON THE PEANUT BUTTER
1 - What type of peanut butter should I use? Only use "traditional" peanut butter (Jif, Skippy, Peter Pan, etc.). You might be able to use "natural" peanut butter but I haven't tested it so I can't confirm the results would be the same.
2 - Which brand of peanut butter is best in this recipe? I am a die-hard Jif peanut butter fan and have literally never baked with anything else. I can't say which is best in this recipe but I know Jif is awesome!
3 - Can I use crunchy peanut butter? Yes! But if you do, increase the amount by 2 tablespoons.
OTHER FAQ ON PEANUT BUTTER SANDIES
1 - What is the point of sprinkling on the salt/sugar combo? There are two really! The most important is that the crystals will really "wake up" your taste buds when you take a bite, activating the sweet and salty flavor receptors simultaneously. The sprinkling also helps prevent the fork from sticking to the dough when making the crosshatch pattern.
2 - What if I don't have parchment paper or baking mats? You can use aluminum foil. Because these cookies are so much like shortbread, we need to be able move them from the pan before they completely cool without disturbing them much. They can crumble if disturbed before they have set but may dry out if left to cool on the hot pan.
3 - Salted or unsalted butter? Real, salted butter in this. TIP: if a recipe doesn't specify to use unsalted butter, it is has been written to use regular, salted butter.
4 - Can I add chopped peanuts? Heck yes! I'd add about 1 cup of finely chopped roasted peanuts.
5 - Can I omit the peanut butter morsels? Yes, you surely can.
6 - Can I substitute chocolate chips or other flavors of morsels? Also yes! I haven't but I'm sure chocolate chips or butterscotch morsels would be lovely.
MORE PEANUT BUTTER RECIPES TO TRY
Nanny's Peanut Butter Cream Pie - A simple no-bake peanut butter pie recipe that's silky smooth, luxuriously rich and packed with peanut butter flavor.
Peanut Butter Chocolate Frito Munch - A quick 4-ingredient sweet and salty recipe of Fritos corn chips and chocolate morsels covered in white chocolate and peanut butter.
Nutter Butter Icebox Cake - A layered dessert recipe with chocolate pudding, peanut butter cookies, whipped cream and peanut butter drizzle like a chocolate peanut butter lasagna!
Fluffernutter Squares - Super easy no-bake bars with peanut butter and mini marshmallows that will leave you craving more!
Peanut Butter Buckeye Brownie Cheesecake - No-bake peanut butter cheesecake layered between brownie chunks and hot fudge sauce with peanut butter cups on top.
Recipe for Peanut Butter Sandies
Peanut Butter Sandies
The ultimate peanut butter cookie that melts in your mouth like tender-crisp shortbread, chocked full of peanut butter morsels and sprinkled lightly with kosher salt and sugar.
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 cups creamy peanut butter
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 10-oz bag peanut butter morsels (about 1.5 cups)
- Kosher salt and sugar for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking pan with parchment paper or baking mat.
- With the paddle attachment of a stand mixer or a traditional hand-held mixer, cream the butter and sugars until smooth and fluffy, (about 3 minutes). 1 c. butter, 3/4 c. each sugar and brown sugar
- Add peanut butter and eggs then mix until well incorporated. 2 c. peanut butter, 2 eggs
- Add flour and baking soda then mix until well combined. 2 c. flour, 1 tsp baking soda
- Mix in peanut butter morsels.
- Using a medium cookie scoop (1.25-oz capacity), scoop dough onto prepared pan about 2 inches apart.
- Combine equal parts kosher salt and sugar (about 1 tablespoon each) in a small bowl then stir well. Sprinkle each cookie with a pinch of the salt/sugar combo.
- Using the tines of a standard dinner fork, press down slightly on each cookie then rotate 90 degrees and make another indentation, ultimately pressing the rounded tops of the cookies down but not flattening them so much that they spread.
- Bake at 350 degrees 12 to 15 minutes, until cookies are just starting to brown on the bottom edges. Remove from oven, let cool 1-2 minutes then carefully lift or slide off baking pans then cool completely.
- Once cool, store in an air-tight container up to one week.
Notes
- You can bake 2 pans at once if using convection mode on your oven. Reduce oven temp to 325 degrees, bake on the center two racks and rotate pans halfway through cooking.
- I use real, salted butter in this (and all my recipes).
- Aluminum foil can be used instead of parchment paper.
- Light or dark brown sugar can be used.
- See article above for TIPS and FAQ.
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